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Sunday, 22 September 2013

Aston Martin Rapide S

Aston Martin Rapide S

The Aston Martin Rapide is a four-door, high-performance sport saloon, which British luxury marque Aston Martin introduced in early 2010. It was first presented as a concept car at Detroit's North American International Auto Show in 2006 and the production version of the Rapide was shown at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show.

The Rapide name is a reference to the Lagonda Rapide, a saloon car produced by Lagonda, now part of Aston Martin. The new Rapide is the company's first four-door saloon since the Aston Martin Lagonda was discontinued in 1989. It is based on the Aston Martin DB9 and shares the same VH platform.
The first cars were rolled out in May 2010, initially built at a dedicated plant at the Magna Steyr facility in Graz, Austria. The factory initially planned to build 2,000 per year, but relocated to England in 2012 after sales did not meet production targets.

Equipment

The Rapide's standard features include a tilt-telescoping steering
wheel, bi-xenon headlamps and LED taillamps. Leather and walnut trim are
standard, with metallic accents; power front seats with memory, cooling
and heating; Bluetooth; satellite radio (US version only); and USB and
iPod connectivity. The Rapide comes, as standard, with a Bang & Olufsen 16 speaker sound system with two that rise from the dashboard on activation of the system.

Specification

As part of the 2013 facelift and revisions to the Rapide, the V12 engine is upgraded to now produce 550 bhp (410 kW; 558 PS).
Performance improvements include a top speed of 190 mph (306 km/h) and
acceleration 0-100 km/h (62 mph) reduced to 4.9 seconds. CO2 emissions are cut by 23g/km to 332g/km.

Production

Aston Martin opted to end production by sub-contractor Magna Steyr
in the middle of 2012, six years earlier than expected. Production of
the car was also halted temporarily in May 2011. In the face of a
diminishing market for luxury saloons, and to match output to shrinking
sales, Aston Martin has to cut annual production from 2,000 to 1,250 in
June 2011 - and may go as low as 500 annually.